ALBION boss Chris Hughton has urged his players to use their title dejection to fire them up for the Premier League.

Substitute Jack Grealish’s 89th-minute equaliser in yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Aston Villa robbed the Seagulls of the glory of going up as champions.

Newcastle pipped them by a point with a 3-0 home win against Barnsley, exactly a year after the Seagulls missed out on promotion in the North-East with another closing 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough.

Hughton said: “That’s what we have spoken about. We took it into last summer and came back firing.

“You want to see a disappointed changing room because that means the motivation is there to win the game. I don’t think they could have given any more.

“It’s just unfortunate we conceded the goal at the time we did. We had a couple of other opportunities to take the lead from 1-0 to 2-0. It wasn’t to be but it certainly wasn’t down to a work ethic or a real desire from the group of players.

“It’s a really disappointing feel at the moment but that won’t last too long because we can’t afford it to.”

Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle, trailing by seven points with three games to go, hunted Albion down with a third victory on the trot.

Hughton said: “Going into the game I felt we deserved to finish top. All credit to Newcastle, they are a side that invested heavily in the summer and are a Premier League outfit. For us to finish on top of them would have been a real plus but we’ll look to have a good summer, recruit and go again.”

Albion are being honoured by Brighton and Hove Council with an open top bus parade on the seafront on Sunday after celebrating promotion to the top flight for the first time in 38 years with an end-of-season trip to Las Vegas.